Originating from a photograph taken 7 years ago, these orbs have been created from a lens flare (bokeh) that appeared as a reaction from the sunlight in the original photo. As this lens flare looked so much like a spherical object that was floating in the image, I thought that i could make it into something that appeared to be either something microscopic, but extremely close (such as a white blood cell floating across your eye) or something extremely colossal, but far away (such as a planet or star).
This relationship between the reality of scale and how physical size is made tangible by the perspectives we see in images on a screen or on a piece of paper has a lot of importance to my practice as it helps to place our point in the universe. The anthropic principle suggests that observations of the Universe must be compatible with the conscious and sapient life that observes it. However, my mind personally cannot even begin to conceive what the scale of the micro and macro universe is. This is because we cannot understand the concepts of scale by sight alone, as our vision is very limited to the perceivable universe that is in our every day environment. And if we were to be faced with a micro organism and the sun 10 metres in front of us, we would not be able to see either of them for their true sense of scale. This is also a paradox, as “scale” is only a relatable concept to the mind of the beholder, and as the only truly conscious organisms are humans, it would seem that we are limited by our capabilities. Knowledge also ties into this however as we can never possibly know what the real scale of the universe is, from the infinitely little things that we all consist of, to the infinite great scale of the celestial bodies outside of our planet.
Emma Denby 